Halo: Reach had better be a pretty amazing game, because it's just cost a bunch of people their Xbox Live accounts.

The hackers who grabbed Halo: Reachmight have claimed that they weren't going to release the game to the public, but someone did, as the game popped up on torrent sites this week for anyone with a modded Xbox 360 to download and play. But Microsoft was obviously not happy with this, and has handed out "double-tap" bans - both console and player permanently banned from Xbox Live - to those it detected playing the game.

Microsoft emailed the Reach pirates, saying that that they had broken the Xbox Live terms of use and/or code of conduct and had been permanently suspended from the service. It made it quite clear that the ban would not be lifted or modified. This isn't the first time that Microsoft has enacted this kind of ban, but normally it only does it once a year as part of an annual sweep. This should give some indication of how seriously Microsoft has taken the leak.

I have to admit, it's hard to feel any real sympathy for the pirates. There's no way that any of them can claim that they didn't do anything wrong, and they don't really have anyone to blame but themselves. Some pirates' motivations may have been more innocent than others, but all the same, they knew they were doing something they shouldn't.

Good. There is no excuse for what they did and their selfishness screws things up for fans of the game who run the risk of having an upcoming release ruined for them due to videos/spoilers being plastered all over the web when they don't suspect it.

It happened with Gears of War 2, some people got a hold of it, went onto forums and either created threads with misleading titles to post spoilers to unsuspecting people, or went into other peoples threads to do the same thing.

Granted Gears of War 2 didn't have an amazing story all things considered, but it's nice to not know who exactly is going to die and how a month before you get to play it.

It'd be even nicer if they managed to detect those who created new accounts and banned them again.

I do believe I am quite in love with the term "double-tap ban". It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when things like this happen to those who feel they can get for free games for which the rest of us pay good money.

Permabanning is probably a little excessive. For some of them this might have been a first time offense, now they need a new console and account if they ever want to play online again? Personally, I would have made it a 6 month ban. Besides being a little more reasonable, most people would wait that out instead of getting a new XBOX (like they obviously will). Effectively, you'd be banning them for longer.

VulakAerr:I do believe I am quite in love with the term "double-tap ban". It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside when things like this happen to those who feel they can get for free games for which the rest of us pay good money.

I love that term too. :)These guys also make it more difficult for companies to release their games early to reviewers which again could potentially end up screwing over the rest of us who want to see reviews for games before we buy them (and still want to buy them on or around the release date).

Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

In this scenario at the very least: Imagine you're the younger sibling. Your elder sibling has decided to mod his/her console, and you don't get a say in the matter. Now you won't be able to play online either :-/

I would feel kind of bad if it was a shared console, i.e. if two brothers had a console, and one was far more technologically savvy than the other, and long story short they ended up with a modded box and pirated Reach, none of which the other had anything to do with, and suddenly, Oops! No more XBL.

Other than that, banning the pirates doing that seems like a damned good idea.

Besides being a little more reasonable, most people would wait that out instead of getting a new XBOX (like they obviously will). Effectively, you'd be banning them for longer.

Well, first off I disagree that the punishment was excessive - the rest of us are having to wait just a few more weeks until Reach, and if they're so incredibly impatient that they can't even wait that long and have to resort to piracy, the deserve permabans.

But secondly, Microsoft is a profit-making organisation. While I bet "keeping them the fuck away from Halo: Reach for as long as possible" was probably of high importance to them, of even higher importance would be "MAKE MONEY". These people have got to buy new Xbox 360s and create new Accounts, both of which cost money that goes to Microsoft.

Sinclose:Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

Nope, totally justified in my opinion. They violated a clear rule and by this point will have ruined certain aspects of Reach for those who were really looking forward to it. They deserve what they got.

Arkhangelsk:Serves them right. If it's games that barely even exist anymore because they're 20 years old, it might be arguable, but before the game is even released? That's inexcusable.

I agree with this completely. And what about those of us who have been waiting for so long to see this game? As a self-confessed Halo and Bungie fanboy, a Microsoft supporter (when they aren't being really greedy), and just generally someone who appreciates good games, I've personally been looking forward to Reach for a very long time now, ever since the book The Fall Of Reach was published. Quite frankly, pirating such a game, or indeed any game, is nothing more than an insult and a slap in the face to all the hard working men and women who put their time, effort, energy, and sleepless nights into making it, so that gamers can enjoy the fruits of their labour. I'm glad Microsoft has taken this approach to the leak, and I hope other developers and publishers also follow suit as and when their games are leaked before release.

Sinclose:Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

Nope, totally justified in my opinion. They violated a clear rule and by this point will have ruined certain aspects of Reach for those who were really looking forward to it. They deserve what they got.

OK then. But it's still gonna suck if you're the younger sibling and the older brother/sister was stupid enough to take the risk of modding the console :-/

You know... personally I think part of the blame originates with Microsoft for putting the entire game on Xbox Live. There's other, more secure, ways to distribute this game. The old tried and trued physical copy, or creating a regularly checked and re-chekced Reviewer-only level status, something above Gold subscriber, that requires someone from tech support to manually put them into the system, and put all Review-candidate games into something completely separate from the marketplace that only Review-subscribers can access.

I mean, I have no real issue with them trying something, but what did they expect when the review-candidate version was visible for all to see?

Legion:Good. There is no excuse for what they did and their selfishness screws things up for fans of the game who run the risk of having an upcoming release ruined for them due to videos/spoilers being plastered all over the web when they don't suspect it.

It happened with Gears of War 2, some people got a hold of it, went onto forums and either created threads with misleading titles to post spoilers to unsuspecting people, or went into other peoples threads to do the same thing.

Granted Gears of War 2 didn't have an amazing story all things considered, but it's nice to not know who exactly is going to die and how a month before you get to play it.

It'd be even nicer if they managed to detect those who created new accounts and banned them again.

I agree completely. It serves them right.I mean I just can't believe that they thought this was a good idea, I mean the game is coming out in like, three weeks time now? So hence there wouldn't really be much of a profit to be made handing out bootlegs especially knowing that Microsoft would be on to anyone involved with the distribution or purchase of said bootlegs.

Seriously though, good show Microsoft. I will not allow hackers to ruin Reach for me.